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Sugar syrup has a much higher pH (6.0) than Honey (3.2 to 4.5) (Sugar is more alkali)

This affects the reproductive capability of virtually every brood disease in bees plus Nosema. They all reproduce better at pH 6.0 than at 4.5.

Try a search on any brood disease or Nosema apis or cerana and "culture" you'll find what pH they use to culture these. e.g. "AFB pH culture" as search terms in google and see what you can find. Here's an example:

The other 8,000 microorganisms that live in the are also affect by changes in pH. Using sugar syrup disrupts the ecological balance of they hive by disrupting the pH of the food in the hive and the food in the bees’ gut.

"It is well known that improper diet makes one susceptible to disease. Now is it not reasonable to believe that extensive feeding of sugar to bees makes them more susceptible to American Foul Brood and other bee disease? It is known that American Foul Brood is more prevalent in the north than in the south. Why? Is it not because more sugar is fed to bees in the north while here in the south the bees can gather nectar most of the year which makes feeding sugar syrup unnecessary?"--Better Queens, Jay Smith

This was just an observation on his part, but we know that AFB reproduces better at 6.0 than 4.5.

All of this, of course, is ignoring the nutrition of honey and it's also ignoring the opposite roller coaster of putting formic acid or oxalic acid in the hive and shifting it dramatically the other direction and killing even more beneficial microorganisms.

Regarding pH levels, the comparison between sugar syrup and honey doesn’t seem proper. Shouldn’t it be sugar syrup to nectar? I assumed…maybe incorrectly…that most nectars were close to neutral since many, if not most plants thrive in nearly neutral soils. The lowering of pH was a product of the enzymes and other additions made in the bees’ honey stomachs. Was I wrong in my assumption?
If I’m correct, then the pH of sugar syrup is only a factor if the bees are consuming it directly rather than converting it to ‘honey’. Does anyone know what the pH of sugar ‘honey’ might be?
The hazard, to my way of thinking, of using sugar syrup in a hive is if it remains sugar syrup long enough for the various bacteria to colonize it before it’s consumed.
I suppose one answer would be to feed them syrup early enough in the season (Fall) for them to store it as reduced pH honey.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. - Emerson

Generally speaking:
Eastern soils are acidic and western soils are alkaline because of the major difference in precipitation.
Ernie

I think that those sterotypical alkaline/acid differences on either side of PH neutral (pH 7) is generally relatively small. Soils with pH as low as that of honey would support only the most acid tolerant plants. My main point is that I believe that the pH of nectar (or syrup) is reduced by its processing by the bees. Am I wrong?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. - Emerson

>>Using sugar syrup disrupts the ecological balance of they hive by disrupting the pH of the food in the hive and the food in the bees’ gut.

>>All of this, of course, is ignoring the nutrition of honey and it's also ignoring the opposite roller coaster of putting formic acid or oxalic acid in the hive and shifting it dramatically the other direction and killing even more beneficial microorganisms.

Once again...just so I'm clear on what's being suggested here. Its the consensus of the posters that it is important that the pH of syrup be close to that of honey.
Why would it be important to make syrup such a low pH when nectar (natural syrup equivalent) probably isn't low?
Am I confused here? Or am I confusing others? Or....does anyone understand my point?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. - Emerson